There are many construction panels disclosed in the prior art. Thus, by way of illustration, prior art construction panels are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,454,702 of Bonilla-Lugo, 4,253,288 of Chun, 4,541,164 of Indave, 4,509,019 of Deinzer, and 1,824,091 of Magee.
Many of the prior art construction panels are insulated; they often have an insulating core disposed within a wire mesh framework. However, with these prior art panels, the insulating core is usually not fixedly disposed within the wire mesh framework; and, when concrete is applied to the framework, the insulating core is displaced and/or deformed.
The prior art construction panels are usually set in place at the construction site, and then cementitious material is applied to opposing faces of the panel. Cementitious material is generally applied first to one face of the construction panel and then to the other face.
One suitable cementitious material often used with construction panels is concrete. When wet concrete is applied to the face of a wire mesh framework/insulating core construction panel, it exerts a substantial amount of force. Thus, for example, a pressure of about 24 pounds per square foot being applied to the faced of an insulating core during concrete application is not uncommon.
If the insulating core of the construction panel is displaced during concrete application, the final product will not have uniform properties. There will be more concrete on one side of the panel than on the other side, and, depending upon the order in which different faces of different panels have concrete applied to them, different panels may have differing amounts of concrete on adjacent sides. Furthermore, if the insulation core is displaced sufficiently so that one of its sides touches the wire mesh framework at one or more places, the strength properties of the panel may be adversely affected.
One proposed solution for solving the problem of displacement of the insulating core during application of the cementitious material is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,454,702 of Bonilla-Lugo. Bonilla-Lugo discloses a construction panel made from a wire mesh sheet which measures 60 inches by 96 inches (see lines 63-65 of column 4 and FIGS. 5a and 5b) and whose wire mesh forms 6 inch.times.6 inch openings. The average width of the Bonilla-Lugo construction panel is 3.5 inches, the average length of the panel is 28.25 inches, the average width of the construction core used in the panel is 2.5 inches, and the average length of the construction core is 20 inches (see lines 17-21 of column 5 and FIGS. 3a and 3b).
In order to fixedly secure his insulating core within the wire mesh framework, Bonilla-Lugo uses a multiplicity of concrete block separators. These separators appear to be tied in place through the insulating core, but they do not appear to be attached to the wire mesh framework (see lines 6-9 of column 5).
There are not very many concrete block separators used in the construction panel of Bonilla-Lugo. This, as is illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 11 of the Bonilla-Lugo patent, for every 40 square feet of 8'.times.5' construction panel, there are only 8 concrete block separators. The use of only 0.2 separators per square foot of the Bonilla-Lugo construction panel is not sufficient to adequately prevent the insulating core from being displaced from its set position during concrete application, especially since the separators do not appear to be secured to the wire mesh framework.
It appears that one of the primary reasons Bonilla-Lugo does not use more concrete separators in his construction panel is to maintain its light weight. The construction panel of Bonilla-Lugo " . . . weighs 1 lb/sq. ft. and because it is light weight it is easy to handle . . . " (see lines 26-27 if column 5). The use of the eight block separators shown in FIG. 1 adds about 0.3 pounds/square foot of weight to the Bonilla-Lugo panel; and, if substantially more concrete block separators and/or substantially thicker concrete block separators were used, the construction panel of Bonilla-Lugo would be substantially heavier.
There appear to be only a limited range of widths which can be used for the concrete separators in the Bonilla-Lugo construction panels. Thus, as is disclosed on lines 17-23 of column 5, the concrete separators may range in size from 0.5 inches to 1.0 inches. Wider concrete separators apparently cannot be used in the construction panel of Bonilla-Lugo; if they were used, they might make the panel prohitively heavy.
In construction panels used for ceiling and roof sections, the insulating foam core should be disposed within the wire mesh framework so that the separation between the top side of the wire mesh framework and the top face of the insulating foam core is substantially greater than the separation between the bottom side of the wire mesh framework and the bottom face of the insulating foam core. This is so because the upper part of the ceiling panel is usually subjected to a substantial amount of compressive load. The former separation preferably ranges from about 1.0 to about 3.0 inches.
It is an object of this invention to provide an insulated building panel which is self-aligning. It is another object of this invention to provide a building panel in which a foam insulating panel is fixedly disposed within a wire mesh framework. It is another object of this invention to provide a building panel which is lightweight. It is yet another object of this invention to provide a building panel which, for a given wire gage and weight of insulating panel, has a substantially constant weight per linear foot of wire mesh used regardless of the distances used between the wire mesh framework and the faces of the foam insulating core.